Insider Buying: Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Major Shareholder Buys 50,000 Shares of Stock

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) major shareholder William Scully acquired 50,000 shares of Prothena stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were bought at an average price of $9.31 per share, with a total value of $465,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 936,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,714,160. This trade represents a 5.64% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Large shareholders that own at least 10% of a company’s shares are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Prothena Trading Down 6.1%

NASDAQ:PRTA traded down $0.56 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $8.69. 379,477 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 502,767. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $10.13 and its 200-day moving average is $9.72. The firm has a market cap of $454.82 million, a PE ratio of -3.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of -0.25. Prothena Corporation plc has a twelve month low of $4.95 and a twelve month high of $11.80.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.31) by $0.91. The company had revenue of $51.08 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.81 million. Prothena had a negative net margin of 260.92% and a negative return on equity of 43.44%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Prothena Corporation plc will post 0.18 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Rubric Capital Management LP grew its holdings in shares of Prothena by 36.0% in the first quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 5,000,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $48,600,000 after purchasing an additional 1,322,669 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Prothena by 151.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,267,802 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $21,658,000 after purchasing an additional 1,366,764 shares during the period. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Prothena by 8.5% in the first quarter. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC now owns 1,581,443 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $15,372,000 after purchasing an additional 123,679 shares during the period. Palo Alto Investors LP grew its holdings in shares of Prothena by 3.9% in the third quarter. Palo Alto Investors LP now owns 1,324,028 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $12,923,000 after purchasing an additional 49,275 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Prothena by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,063,069 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $10,154,000 after purchasing an additional 43,586 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Prothena from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Prothena from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $19.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Citizens Jmp increased their target price on shares of Prothena from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $23.75.

Prothena Company Profile

Prothena Corporation plc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapies for neurodegenerative and rare diseases driven by misfolded proteins. The company’s research focuses on immunotherapies and small molecules designed to target and clear disease-causing protein aggregates. Prothena leverages proprietary protein engineering and antibody discovery platforms to advance candidates through preclinical and clinical stages.

The company’s most advanced program is an antibody targeting aggregated alpha-synuclein for the potential treatment of Parkinson’s disease, currently in mid-stage clinical trials.